No Surprise: Netflix Dominates on Consoles, Hulu Mostly on Computers

Here at Techland, we still consider Netflix to be a pretty good deal, especially now that they’re offering Mad Menstreaming in its entirety.

But we also understand that jacking up of subscription prices from $10 for an all inclusive package to $16 for both DVDs and streaming (with little warning to their customers) wasn’t exactly the most kosher thing to do. Looks like they know this too, as they’re reported to be bracing for a stock plunge.

Prior to the announcement, however, a survey conducted in March by Nielsen took a look at both Netflix and Hulu to determine how exactly customers are connecting to the services.

They found that 89% of the survey takers were using Hulu when it came to watching movies or TV shows on their computer. For Netflix? It was a more down-to-Earth 42%.

What’s more: Netflix appears to dominate across console systems. On the Wii it’s Netflix’s 25% versus Hulu’s 3%, on PlayStation 3 it’s 13% versus 3%, and on Xbox it’s 12% to 2%. It makes sense: You need to pay for Hulu Plus in order to view it on consoles, and Netflix has this capability already built in.

Nielsen surveyed 12,000 online viewers to put together these findings, and it’ll be interesting to see if Netflix viewership really is impacted by the price adjustments. Will consumers pony up for Hulu Plus? I mean, it’s only $6 extra for Netflix! That’s less than a day’s lunch.